天、地、水三官的寶號早期不見「九炁」、「七炁」、「五炁」等字樣，而後期卻在《太上三元賜福赦罪解厄延生妙經》中加入了這一部分，這其中的變化牽涉甚廣。三官大帝的「炁數」不同，這與道教宇宙觀中的分形分炁有關，也與《易經》象數及月建問題存在特定連結，更涉及早期天師道的思想，甚至還與三官大帝信仰中的三官宮府存在著不解之緣。

During the early Daoism, the Precious Titles (聖號) of the Three Officials didn’t contain Nine Qi (九炁), Seven Qi (七炁), Five Qi (五炁). However, the terms were added into the Most High Marvelous Life-Protecting Scripture Granting Happiness Forgiving Dins and Averting Disaster (《太上三元賜福赦罪解厄延生妙經》). This change involves in many aspects, such as the Qishu (炁數) of Three Officials are different, which is related to the concept of the mode of distribution of Xing and Qi in Taoist cosmology. It is also related to the Image-numerology and Month. which involves in the Way of the Celestial Master. And what’s more it related to the Palace of the Three Officials.